Automotive Repair News Today

Braxton Critcher [00:00:05]:
How you feeling?

Lisa Foshee [00:00:06]:
Good.

Braxton Critcher [00:00:07]:
Let's take a deep breath. Busy couple of days here.

Lisa Foshee [00:00:10]:
Oh, my gosh. I mean, the energy around the show has been fantastic. Yeah, I think it's. I think it's one of the best ever.

Braxton Critcher [00:00:18]:
Well, you tell me. This is my first. So I guess it's just. It's blowing your socks off, huh?

Lisa Foshee [00:00:24]:
Yeah, yeah. I mean, why? I think the businesses are getting to have the meetings that they want to have and make the connections that they need to make to thrive. I think the technicians are getting fantastic training. I think our communities, women in autocare, the vehicle community, import vehicle community, get time to spend together and celebrate and give out their annual awards, which, you know, people really appreciate. So it's fun to see the business getting done and the celebration of the industry. As Bill says, it's the industry's homecoming and you can really feel it.

Braxton Critcher [00:01:03]:
Yeah, you know, that's a good way to think about it. I agree with that. Yeah. You know, you see people from all over catch up with folks and Bill's Garage or Joe's Garage? Joe's Garage. Yeah, Joe's Garage is wild.

Braxton Critcher [00:01:16]:
That's cool.

Lisa Foshee [00:01:17]:
That was one of a, sort of a new development and it has grown exponentially and you know, again, I think being able to use the time that people are here to have the hands on training has been such a value add to the show and you know, we just continue to expand it and make it more accessible. And I think people, people really appreciate it.

Braxton Critcher [00:01:42]:
So we're in Las Vegas at The Apex Show 2024, and yesterday was kind of a big day in the country. There was this thing called the election, right. And you guys obviously represent a lot of people, your members, and you keep a pulse of what's happening in legislation, in Congress because people need to know and you guys kind of help break it down, keep people informed and help them walk the line. But so a couple of things that I want to talk about. The first one is the repair act and we've talked about this before, it got introduced in 2023 and it really, I felt, got a lot of traction. Summer, early fall this year, and I felt like it was about to get passed or at least voted and probably passed, but then they tabled it till the first of the year. So that's kind of where we're at. Nothing's really going to change until January, February of next year, 2025.

Braxton Critcher [00:02:49]:
But with the election, new folks in office, things are going to have to be resurfaced and people are going to have to educate themselves. Congress will do that. And so tell me where we're at with the Repair act and just what. What's the conversation right now around the election changes and picking up where they left off in a few months?

Lisa Foshee [00:03:15]:
Absolutely. Yes. Yesterday was, without question, a big day. We, as you said, made enormous progress on the Repair act throughout this year. We had it down. We were one of the last bills considered in September for the Energy and Commerce Committee vote. And as bill says, politics got in the way of progress, and unfortunately, we were not added to the agenda. I believe it would have passed had we been up for a vote, I think so we had the momentum.

Lisa Foshee [00:03:52]:
And, you know, as we've talked about, it's a bipartisan issue, both sides of the aisle.

Braxton Critcher [00:03:57]:
So rare these days. So rare. It was 27. 27 split.

Lisa Foshee [00:04:01]:
Exactly.

Braxton Critcher [00:04:02]:
Yeah.

Lisa Foshee [00:04:02]:
And so we, you know, we. We had a few weeks of grieving, and now we've worked through that process and we're getting energized around the next Congress.

Braxton Critcher [00:04:11]:
So you've gone through the. What is it, the four steps of a grieval process or grieving process. Yes.

Lisa Foshee [00:04:16]:
And now we're back to energize.

Braxton Critcher [00:04:18]:
Now you're super ready.

Lisa Foshee [00:04:19]:
Yes. Okay. The bill will expire at the end of this Congress. So on December 31, we will reintroduce it in the 119th Congress. So it will have a new number.

Braxton Critcher [00:04:31]:
It will be 906.

Lisa Foshee [00:04:32]:
Right. It'll have some new number.

Braxton Critcher [00:04:34]:
Okay. And right now I finally memorized. I did, man. Finally.

Lisa Foshee [00:04:40]:
I'll get a new number. But, you know, the great news is that because of the commitment of the industry and all of the hard work that was done by our members to talk to their congresspeople and their representatives and come to D.C. we're going to be able to hit the ground running. We will get it reintroduced. Dr. Dunn, our primary sponsor, has already committed to reintroducing the bill. He is in this for the long haul. Our shop owner, Congresswoman Marie Glusenkamp Perez, is still in a very tight race for her seat.

Lisa Foshee [00:05:18]:
So we don't know as.

Braxton Critcher [00:05:20]:
When do you think that'll happen? This episode probably comes out a week from this recording. So she probably will know at that point, I guess, right? Yes. Yeah.

Lisa Foshee [00:05:27]:
Yes. So we should know by then, hopefully by the end of this season.

Braxton Critcher [00:05:30]:
How is it looking?

Lisa Foshee [00:05:31]:
She is winning right now by a very slim margin.

Braxton Critcher [00:05:34]:
Okay.

Lisa Foshee [00:05:35]:
But we're very hopeful that she'll retain her seat and continue to fight this fight with us.

Braxton Critcher [00:05:40]:
So that'd be two of the 54 co sponsors.

Lisa Foshee [00:05:43]:
Right. Right. And then so what we'll do is we'll get it reintroduced. We'll go around to all of the folks that already signed on and who remain in office and try to get them to sign on quickly and then get additional co sponsors as we can. Again, as we sit here today, the House of Representatives is still up in the air as to who will control the House. By next week, we'll know that. And if the Democrats control the House, Frank Pallone will be the chairman of Energy and Commerce and he is well versed in the repair act because he has been serving on the committee. If the Republicans control the House, there are three, two to three members of Energy and Commerce that are in the running for the chairmanship.

Braxton Critcher [00:06:38]:
Do you have relationships with these?

Lisa Foshee [00:06:39]:
We do. We do, fortunately, because again, they've been serving on the committee. We brief them all on the Repair Act. So depending on who has the gavel will dictate our strategy as to what we do. And then a real focus will be to get it introduced in the Senate quickly. And so we're working right now, you know, now that the election, we're still waiting for a few seats in the Senate, but then we're going to sit down and identify all of our potential Senate sponsors to get it introduced. Them.

Braxton Critcher [00:07:11]:
Yeah.

Lisa Foshee [00:07:12]:
So as I said, because of all the work that we've done already, we are hoping for a real fast start in first quarter of next year Now.

Braxton Critcher [00:07:21]:
So I've talked about this repair act more than maybe any other thing this year, talked about it at nauseum and I've learned so much. But I've asked a lot of people this question, but I don't Are there people out there that are not wanting this to pass? And what is your perspective as to why?

Lisa Foshee [00:07:47]:
There are two main categories of people that do not want it to pass. The first are the automotive manufacturers themselves. And my personal theory on why they don't want it to pass is because they need to monetize all of the data that's being collected off the cars and trucks, terabytes of data. And if they allow even an inroad into that data for repair and maintenance, I think they feel like that is a threat to their control over all of the data.

Braxton Critcher [00:08:27]:
It's just the thing is, though, there's far too many vehicles on the road for manufacturers and dealerships to handle the influx. They would have it wouldn't work. You would never have repairs every time your car would break. It takes six months to get it fixed. And they know that.

Lisa Foshee [00:08:46]:
That's exactly the basis of my theory. We and the manufacturers agree on the 70% statistic, namely that 70% of out of warranty vehicles are repaired in the aftermarket. They know that we know that. They know we are, you know, absolutely, you know, linked at the Hill should be cousins. Right.

Braxton Critcher [00:09:09]:
Maybe not brothers, but cousins at least work together in some way and they know that independent repair shops help them because couldn't handle it. No way.

Lisa Foshee [00:09:18]:
Right. But I think they just again, are so wary of having to give up all of their data that they don't want to even give access to this small.

Braxton Critcher [00:09:31]:
It all comes back to money. It always does.

Lisa Foshee [00:09:33]:
Yeah.

Braxton Critcher [00:09:34]:
You know, after you reintroduce the bill, I've heard January, February is possible to get this maybe on the ballot to vote for. Is that feasible? Are we looking maybe later in next year or what's your timeline?

Lisa Foshee [00:09:47]:
I think, I think later, first quarter, because it'll take the new Congress a little bit of time to get set up. You know, they have to appoint who's on the committee, etc. But again, we're going to do everything in our power not to recreate the wheel. And when you mention.

Braxton Critcher [00:10:08]:
You'Re good, when.

Lisa Foshee [00:10:09]:
You mention, you know, talking about it as much as we have, I entirely agree with you. And so really what we're trying to do is go do our work in Washington and call on the industry when we're really. When it's go time.

Braxton Critcher [00:10:26]:
Yeah.

Lisa Foshee [00:10:26]:
So you're not going to hear us.

Braxton Critcher [00:10:28]:
Right.

Lisa Foshee [00:10:28]:
You take a break talking about this so that people can re energize, focus on their business. But then when we call, we're going to mean it.

Braxton Critcher [00:10:37]:
Okay.

Lisa Foshee [00:10:37]:
So we're going to need the, we're going to need the industry to jump in.

Braxton Critcher [00:10:41]:
Okay. So I'll take a break for a few months here.

Lisa Foshee [00:10:44]:
We have lots of other things we could talk about.

Braxton Critcher [00:10:46]:
906 is going to bed something else. Sold.

Lisa Foshee [00:10:49]:
Yeah. But again, we're going to be doing our job in Washington.

Braxton Critcher [00:10:52]:
Yeah.

Lisa Foshee [00:10:53]:
And we're able to have that luxury again because of everything people have done before. So it's very important, I want people to understand that, you know, we describe it as being at halftime. All the work that's been done is going to be useful and we're going to build on it and take the next step.

Braxton Critcher [00:11:14]:
Okay. Well, it's exciting.

Lisa Foshee [00:11:16]:
Yep.

Braxton Critcher [00:11:18]:
I think that when it does go back and you don't have the election looming, I just hope it goes quickly. I just hope it goes quickly. You Know, it doesn't need to get. Oh, here's a question. So kind of with that, if it does get drawn out a little bit and you're into later in the first quarter, let's say it gets to May, June, and it's still not passed yet. You know what kind of power is growing right now for manufacturers and their ability to hold on to the data? This hasn't been passed yet, and so they have control. And so what is this doing to the industry as we speak? And is this going to be a real concern if it's not passed soon?

Lisa Foshee [00:12:08]:
Yeah, I mean, you've hit the nail on the head in terms of the cars. Where it really has the impact is the cars coming out of warranty. Because remember, these advanced technologies, as your listeners know far better than I, we don't see them in the aftermarket yet.

Braxton Critcher [00:12:23]:
Yeah, for a few years. Yeah.

Lisa Foshee [00:12:24]:
2000, 19s, 20s, 21s. But as those warranty periods expire, that's when they're really going to start showing up and we're going to have a hard time getting the data. So the longer it takes, the bigger the problem becomes.

Braxton Critcher [00:12:39]:
Exactly. And we're not really seeing it. Yeah, you're right. You're not really seeing it yet. But here soon, you could. Really could.

Lisa Foshee [00:12:45]:
Yes. I mean, we expect we will.

Braxton Critcher [00:12:47]:
Yeah.

Lisa Foshee [00:12:48]:
The survey we did recently of 700 shops, so we had a third party do the survey and they said of those 700 shops, over 50% of them, 60% of them said that they send vehicles to the dealership from their shop one to five times a month because they can't fix them.

Braxton Critcher [00:13:09]:
Yeah, well, that's low number, but that'll grow.

Lisa Foshee [00:13:12]:
Well, yeah, I mean, but if every. If, though just that number of shops is having that many problems, if you had to spend the time working on the vehicle five times a month and you can't charge the customer that because you've got to send it to the dealership. That adds up.

Braxton Critcher [00:13:27]:
That's true. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. Okay, so that's the Repair Act. I know you guys have a couple of other things you're thinking about planning for in 2025. What's that?

Lisa Foshee [00:13:36]:
Well, we're really excited about moving forward on workforce initiative, technician training, because as we've talked about, you know, even when we pass the Repair act, if we don't have anyone to actually fix the cars, it's not going to matter. And so we've spent a lot of time as an association over the last several months digging into this problem. Because there, you know, you talk about it and everyone agrees it's a really big problem. And then everyone looks at each other and moves on to the next issue. There are people in the industry doing great work around this. And so what we want to do is look at it from a holistic standpoint. How can we bring that great work together and how can we make all of the things that are out there more accessible to our members? So our goal is to do three impactful things by the end of 2025 around this issue. One of them will be actively engaging on a Federal bill, around 529 plans, Pell grants, technician tools, that type of thing.

Lisa Foshee [00:14:45]:
And then two others will be more local, state level, to work the process for the workforce boards in the local states, the technical colleges, the apprenticeship programs, and figure out how those can be packaged up and presented to the employers in that state. To say, this is really easy, go hook up with these people and there's funding and there's trainees and there's apprentices and there are people to fill your needs and in many cases you can get the funding to bring them into your shop.

Braxton Critcher [00:15:22]:
Yeah, that's really smart. That's really smart to think ahead because you're right, you know, this does get passed and some of those cars start to go into shops. You know, tech's got to know what they're doing. That's good. That's really forward thinking. That's good.

Lisa Foshee [00:15:35]:
And as all of your listeners know, it is an amazing industry and an amazing place to have a career. You know, maybe you don't necessarily want to be the guy or gal in the shop, but you can be a catalog manager, you can be at the parts counter, you can, you know, do accounting for the shop. You can figure out, you know, the merger and acquisition strategy for the business. I mean, so many different opportunities. So we really need to sell our industry through these training programs and get people as excited about it as we all are.

Braxton Critcher [00:16:09]:
Right. And I think you mentioned something earlier about taxes and how that may change with the new, you know, the new administration. And that affects repair shops. So talk about that.

Lisa Foshee [00:16:21]:
Yes, the tax law will expire at the end of 2025. So there will be a lot of energy in Congress this year around which exemptions remain, which exemptions are allowed to expire. And it's going to affect all of our members from the biggest retailers down to the family owned companies. So we're going to dedicate significant resources to monitoring those developments and keeping people informed and then engaging in the most effective way on advocacy for that, which most likely is in coalitions with other associations to really highlight the impact and the importance.

Braxton Critcher [00:17:05]:
So you're really connected with those who are in the know about the repair act and stuff. But what kind of connections does the Auto Cure association have with people and let's say, about the tax bills and who's going to be writing those and getting that to, you know, to be passed? What kind of connections do you have with people in those spheres?

Lisa Foshee [00:17:25]:
It's a great question because our effectiveness is so. It's so important to build those relationships, just like in any business. So we work with nfib, we work with the Family Business Coalition, we work with the Tire Industry association, just to name a few, to really make sure that we're all sharing information and presenting the best advocacy that we can as it affects all of the members of the industry.

Braxton Critcher [00:17:55]:
Yeah. And you tell me this is something I'm uninformed about. So all of those groups, associations you just mentioned, those are not elected positions?

Lisa Foshee [00:18:06]:
No.

Braxton Critcher [00:18:07]:
So the relationships you have, none of them are going to be different you already. They're going to continue into next year is what I'm saying. Oh, yes. The election has nothing to do with those groups.

Lisa Foshee [00:18:17]:
Absolutely, no.

Braxton Critcher [00:18:18]:
So that's good.

Lisa Foshee [00:18:19]:
Yes, very good. Yes. Those are industry groups and we work really hard. And one of my goals since I started was really to broaden our external relationships, if you will, because the more people that I can call when we have a question or we can all band together to support something, then the stronger we are. So that's really one of the critical things that I've tried to accomplish. And it's an ongoing project.

Braxton Critcher [00:18:51]:
What else is newsworthy with the Autocure Association I need to know about?

Lisa Foshee [00:18:55]:
I think those are our three big things from my part of the world. That's what we're really going to be focused on. And those are pretty big elephants to tackle.

Braxton Critcher [00:19:05]:
Yeah, they are. I think maybe three is enough.

Lisa Foshee [00:19:07]:
Yeah. But again, you know, with. With all of your listeners, our. My job is to work on and talk about what is important to the people in the industry. So if there are things that are not on my list or not on my radar, feedback is such a gift in this area. So we're always anxious to hear about what's going on in people's business and how we can help.

Braxton Critcher [00:19:33]:
So what's the. How can people reach out?

Lisa Foshee [00:19:35]:
Autocare.org okay.

Braxton Critcher [00:19:38]:
Autocare.org and of course, you know, if you're listening to this podcast and you can check us out on social media. You can reach out to us too and we'll try and get that to Lisa and the team. So automotive repair News today on many of The Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, all those social media platforms. So check us out there and we'll try to get that on to Lisa. So thank you.

Lisa Foshee [00:19:59]:
Thank you. I really appreciate the time.

Braxton Critcher [00:20:01]:
Yeah.

Braxton Critcher [00:20:06]:
Hey, if you're still here, thank you so much for listening to this episode of Automotive Repair News today. If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment like share. Subscribe to the podcast. It'll help us out a big deal and help grow the show. And you know what? While you're at it, slowly slap on a review too. If you feel like this content is helpful for the industry, don't forget to follow us on all your favorite social media platforms. We're on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn. Stay connected and be the first to know about new episodes, behind the scene, content and more.

Braxton Critcher [00:20:40]:
And until next time, let's make the industry better together.